Jaipur - Part 2

Right after breakfast the doctor was at the hotel to go over the results of the scans, which showed no critical issues with my spine or leg. Huzzah!

The even better news is that I'd actually been feeling much better since the previous afternoon at the farm. I don't know why it suddenly started to resolve, but I'm going to believe that it was hugging an elephant!

With that behind us we headed out with Shakti to visit the City Palace. Built in 1727, it was the seat of the kings of Jaipur and part of it is still the family home.

I had been catching glimpses of the white gate from the street every time we passed it.

Finally we got up close to see the detailed frescos decorating it.

We wandered slowly through the courtyards and structures of the palace. Several, like the Sabha Niwas, below, house exhibits of the history of the palace and the royal family.

The Sarvato Bhadra is such a pretty building.

It is used for public festivals, and also houses the Gangajalis, two enormous silver urns used to transport Ganges water to London when Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II travelled there for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.

From the other side of the courtyard we had a view of the seven-storey Chandra Mahal, which is the private residence of the royal family.

The courtyard next to the Chandra Mahal is the Pritam Niwas Chowk. It has four beautifully decorated gates representing the four seasons. The northeast autumn gate has a spectacular peacock theme.

The passageway out of that courtyard has photographs of the last two generations of the family, along with famous guests they entertained, including Prince Philip, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Princess Diana. As we left there, a motorcade was crossing the next courtyard and in one car we could see Diya Kumari, Deputy Chief Minister of the state of Rajasthan and mother of the current, though unofficial, Maharaja of Jaipur.

Our last stop was the Mubarak Mahal, built in 1900 to receive foreign guests and now used to house the palace’s textile collection.

Near the exit was an all-pink Hindustan Ambassador, the most common car in India for decades in the twentieth century.

We crossed the street from the City Palace to the Jantar Mantar. It looks like a sculpture garden, but is actually an 18th century observatory. The nineteen “sculptures” are all astronomical instruments.

The Laghu Samrat Yantra is a sundial measuring time within 20 seconds.

This is one of the two hemispheres of the Jai Prakash Yantra, which maps the sky and can be used to measure altitudes, azimuths, hour angles, and declinations.

In Jaipur we first encountered people wanting to take pictures with us, particularly Alice. It hasn't happened often enough to be annoying and we're sort of amused by the “white girl for luck” phenomenon.

This is the Vrihat Samrat Yantra, the largest gnomon sundial in the world. It can measure time to within two seconds. It looks quite surreal and reminded me of a Giorgio de Chirico painting.

I had been doing so much better, not needing the wheelchair at all, but only to sit and rest regularly. But I didn't think I needed to descend into the lower level of the Vrihat Samrat Yantra. So I wasn't there when Jason stepped wrong coming off the bottom step and twisted his ankle. He downplayed it and insisted on continuing with the day's activities, which thankfully did not involve more walking.

First we boarded pink e-rickshaws for a tour of the markets of Jaipur’s old city. The Pink City Rickshaw Co. is owned and operated by women from low-income households to create opportunity and equity.

I was sorry that this had been scheduled so late in our time in Jaipur, after we'd already been driving through the old city for two days. But it was fun to zip around with Gulab and Punam and to see a few new things.

I caught sight of this colorful temple spire beside one of the gates to the old city.

We passed through the sculpture market, where whole streets of shops offer statues of various gods and famous figures, Gandhi and Modi being the most recognizable to me.

At the end of the tour our drivers dropped us at The Johri for lunch at the restaurant of a hotel named one of the fifty best in the world.

They served us some very tasty and innovative takes on vegetarian standards, my favorite being the truffle kulcha with spinach.

After lunch we went back to the hotel for the rest of the day. Jason's foot was really hurting and starting to bruise, so he put it up with an ice pack provided by the hotel staff. It was good to have a low key evening and dinner just a few steps away.